Testing of Mousetrap and Reflections

1. Using the data table from 3.1, calculate the average velocity for your mousetrap car during the best run in the final assessment.
3.41/4 = 0.85

2. Which part of your mousetrap car design worked best? Explain your answer.
The wheels. The wheels were tightly secured with the axle, therefore when the axle spins, the wheel spins with it.

3. If you had more time to work on your mousetrap car, state and explain how you will improve/modify the current design?
We would use a different axle, but due to the lack of time, we had to use chopsticks and rush the work.

Reflection

- Describe 3 things that you have learnt from the mousetrap car PT (which you did not know of prior to the PT).

- Describe 1 of the most unforgettable experiences you had while working with your group on the mousetrap cat PT.

Carlin:
I learnt in the mousetrap car performance task that planning of how we are going to carry out the performance task is essential. Due to poor planning, we rushed the work and were unable to give quality to our fullest potential. I also learnt that we need to have a backup plan if the prototype fails. We had rebuilt the mousetrap car almost over 3 times due to its failure to work as according to plan. One of our group member was also suspended which led us to a man down therefore we were trying to catch up with the task we gave to him and as he was the leader, we had to appoint a substitute leader. Finally, the third thing I learnt is that if we do not know what caused the problem, we should just redo the whole mousetrap car. We spent hours arguing over why the mousetrap car could not work and we came to the conclusion to just redo the whole mousetrap car which we learnt, saved a lot of time.

I had helped in the blog by following closely to the requirements of the rubrics and grabbed the required information to meet the requirements of the mousetrap car performance task. I did not really help out in the building of the mousetrap car at the start, but as it got closer to the date, I started fixing and helping out in the mousetrap car.

I will never forget the amount of hours we spent on the mousetrap car and had to redo it in the end. We wasted so much time on it and it is something that I will never forget that happened to us, as a group.

Wai Yan:
This project has taught me so much about teamwork, responsibility and especially time management. I think our project was very rushed as we did not have many chances as a group and discuss. The mousetrap car was not built as a group together, but rather we worked on it individually. This caused many problems as there was a lack of communication between the group of how things should have been done. During the second half of working on the project, one member of our team got suspended and this caused a bit of trouble as we were one man short. Overall, I have learnt the importance of managing my time well during this project and how to work as a team. I also learnt how a mousetrap works and how it can be used to power a vehicle.

I worked with Chee Yang closely, with the help of Carlin to work on the mousetrap car. Chee Yang did the initial design and structure of the car and I worked on improving it.

The most unforgettable moment is when we got the car to work.

Chee Yang:
I learnt that we have to always plan in advance so as to not hand in last minute work. We thought that this project will be an easy one and did not put enough effort into it. I also learnt that we should try to arrange time to meet up in order to complete the project. As we were only told that we will be testing the car on the road at a later date, we decided to change the wheels as a result. Thus, we had to keep redoing the mousetrap car and wasted a lot of time by doing so. The last thing I learnt is that we should try to identify the problem of the mousetrap car. By identifying the problem, we not only can cut down on the time to redo the car, we can also fix the problem and test the car immediately.

I helped build the mousetrap car with Wai Yan and worked together with him to create our prototypes and finally came up with the final car design and tested it.

Redoing the mousetrap car at least 2-3 times and finally getting it to work